When asked to list leadership skills yesterday at the MWW Group’s panel discussion on sustainable leadership, David Gergen cited “trust and the capacity to inspire others.” As Gore rolled through an hour-long presentation largely focused on the global climate crisis, inspiration virtually dripped from the stage.

Deloitte CEO Jim Quigley, speaking on the same panel, talked about vision and leadership. Gore offered multiple visions – a vision of what could happen if we don’t change, a vision if we do change and a vision for how to get there.

Jack Welch warned that complacency is one of the greatest dangers facing leaders. Clearly, Gore is one motivated individual when it comes to the topic of climate change. I doubt that complacency is anywhere in his vocabulary. And that, of course, leads to passion.

The words “passion” and “leadership” have been in lockstep in virtually every presentation over the past two days. Gore embodied passion when he spoke about the challenge – and the opportunity – associated with the climate crisis. I, for one, was ready to buckle up and follow him over the ramparts. I suspect that most of the audience felt the same way.

I frequently tell clients that the best way to communicate is to “show, don’t tell.” Most of the speakers at WBF10 have told us about leadership; Al Gore showed us what it looks like.

A panel of experts kicked that topic around for a while this afternoon during the lunch break Tuesday at the 2010 World Business Forum. Compelling topics, to be sure, and the team at MWW Group assembled an equally compelling panel that did it justice.

David Gergen. Advisor to four presidents. Editor at U.S. News & World Report.

Arkadi Kuhlmann. President of ING DIRECT USA. Author of a soon-to-be-published book on values-driven leadership.

Jim Quigley. CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Leader of a world-renowned consulting firm that today was named the leader in its field.

And Michael W. Kempner. President and founder of MWW Group. A classic entrepreneur who has built one of the nation’s leading PR firms.

In short, these guys know the topic and it was great to hear them strut it over the course of an hour. I’ve transcribed some snippets below, but to get the full experience, stop by www.mww.com and dial up the video of the session, which is archived on the Web site.

Kempner started things off with introductions, and then set the stage with some salient comments. “What do we need from our leaders to maintain the quality of life for citizens and employees, and to sustain greatness among our companies,” he asked. “What we have to do as organizations to keep up and compete in these extraordinary times? No one expected these challenges. No one would have anticipated this recessionary economy or the true impact of globalization, the shift to knowledge-based economy and speed of change. The only thing we know for certain is that change will continue.”

Kempner then asked the panelists to define leadership, and Kuhlman set the bar. “Leadership takes doubt out of the situation,” he said. “Leadership can eliminate doubt by being authentic, galvanizing emotions and having a vision that people can aspire to. People have a huge hunger for this – they’re looking forward it across the board.

“The questions become, how well can you articulate your values? Who you stand for and what you stand for? That’s what’s critically important, as it constantly resonates with people you work with. “

Added Quigley: “Sustainable leadership is leadership that works through the entire business cycle. It’s effective when you are rebooting your company and sustainable going forward. Leadership that’s all about this month’s numbers is not sustainable. “

Quigley talked at some length about values-based leadership, which is based on “sound principles that become timeless.” In it, leaders actually walk the talk and make people want to become part of the enterprise. That’s what people are looking for – belief in their leader.”

Kempner’s next question: What are the greatest challenges facing this generation of leadership?

Quigley: “It’s all about the people side of the equation. Leaders have to collaborate and communicate. And play ball. They have to have the ability to create teams and interact.”

Gergen: “Reputation for excellence matters. It’s about trust and continual refreshing of what you’re doing. Without that, it’s easy to be seen as yesterday.”

Kuhlmann: “The gap between what you say and what you do is much shorter than it was, in large part due to social media. The alignment of what you say and what you do is absolutely critical. It’s the only way to get through the noise and support a brand. And the most effective way to do this is to get on the side of the consumer through social media.”

Kempner wrapped things up with one final question. What are the skills necessary for a 21st Century leader.?

Gergen: “Trust and capacity to inspire others. Leaders have to lead beyond their own boundaries.”

Kuhlmann: “Be authentic. Have a willingness to commit and become vulnerable. Accept notion that you are vulnerable and risk failure.”

Quigley: “Trust, authenticity and nimbleness. Leadership and corporate reputation is linked together. The CEO must be the keeper of the flame.”

We’re really excited here at MWW Group to be part of this. There’s a killer agenda today with speakers like Charlene Li and David Gergen that will could easily satisfy a business information junkie. But the real excitement is going to happen away from the stage – great networking during the two days of the event, all kinds of information exchange among the bloggers and journalists in the Blogger Hub high above the main stage, and events that are being held around the actual Forum agenda.

MWW is proud to be sponsoring one of those events this afternoon – a luncheon hosted by our CEO, Michael W. Kempner. Stay tuned on this blog, www.returnonreputation.com, and on our Web site, www.mww.com, for a live stream. It’s going to be most excellent.

It promises to be a full and scintillating couple of days, from Jim Collins’ opening session on how great companies sustain great results Tuesday morning to Wednesday afternoon’s closing presentation on creativity by filmmaker James Cameron. Sandwiched in between is an incredible agenda that includes presentations by leaders and business visionaries such as Al Gore, A.G. Lafley, Joseph Stiglitz, Jack Welch and Vijay Govindarajan.

At MWW Group, we’re honored to be a sponsor of the 2010 World Business Forum and particularly excited about Tuesday’s luncheon activities, when we’ll host a panel discussion on Sustainable Leadership.

The panel will be led by our CEO, Michael W. Kempner, and will feature former White House advisor David Gergen, Jim Quigley, CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, and Arkadi Kuhlmann, president of ING DIRECT USA.

The panel will explore the challenges of leadership today and the leadership imperatives of tomorrow, especially the importance of trust and transparency, increased globalization, rapid innovation and the notion of leadership democratization. In conjunction with the panel’s presentation, MWW will be releasing a white paper on sustainable leadership as well as results from an informal survey on the topic. Both will be available at www.mww.com.

All in all, it should make for a compelling theater, and you can have a front row seat. The panel will be streamed live at www.mww.com and you can follow along as well as submit questions to the panelists in real time through the conference hash tag, #WBF10. Additionally, a summary of the panel discussion will be posted on MWW’s Return on Reputation blog and video of the presentation will be archived on the MWW website.

It’s been that way since 1650, Johnson says, when London coffeehouses offered a fertile environment for the ideas, discussion and debate that sparked the Enlightenment. Johnson offers a series of compelling anecdotes, from Newton to Darwin to today’s high-velocity Internet, about the evolution of idea and makes the case that share a common thread of connectivity. “That’s how innovation happens,” he concludes. “Chance favors the connected mind.”

Johnson’s lecture can be most instructive to today’s leaders. One of the primary functions of leadership is to create and foster an environment that enables people to think freely. Some companies encourage, pay and reward employees to follow ideas that spark their passion. It’s likely that these topics will be discussed when MWW Group hosts a panel on leadership next month at World Business Forum 2010.

So if you’ve ever wondered where those eureka moments of great ideas come from, take a look around the next time you’re waiting for your triple-tall Americano. This may be the place.

“Oh, I get it,” I said. “Sort of like the Cleavers.”

Blank stares came back at me across the table.

“As in … ‘Leave it to Beaver,’ ” I offered.

More blank stares.

Now I have a sense of what Colonel Harland Sanders is feeling these days. According to a survey released by KFC, a majority of Americans ages 18-25 cannot identify the Colonel, once one of the world’s most recognizable brand icons. In fact, more than 50 percent think he’s simply a made-up logo – a sort of corporate Santa Claus or Easter Bunny.

What a way to celebrate your 120th birthday!

Established companies such as KFC cannot simply rest on respected reputations. They owe it to their stakeholders to stay ahead of the curve because, as the man once said, we ain’t getting any younger. As the population ages and new consumers move to the forefront, brands have to manage a tricky balance of managing their long-established reputations while constantly finding ways to keep themselves fresh and modern.

Swing too far one way or the other, and a solid reputation quickly erodes. KFC has felt these effects and is acting quickly to fix it through customer engagement, proactive position and a sense of humor. It’s a formula that worked well for Domino’s Pizza. We’ll see how it plays out for the Colonel.

But we were in good company. Word is that Leno’s people were scrambling around yesterday, trying to find Jenny in order to get her on his show. Ditto for Good Morning, America. In fact, Gawker called it “The Quitting Tale that Suckered the Whole Internet.” Including them!

It reminds me of the day that the New York Mets listed Sidd Finch on their 1985 spring training roster, but at least Sports Illustrated and George Plimpton had the decency to pull off that prank on April Fools Day.

All kidding aside, our points about reputation and social media still stand. In an era when news can spread instantly from a variety of sources, executives can’t be too careful, corporations have to keep their crisis protocols / plans fresh and their crisis teams, internal and external, have to be ready to respond on a dime. You never know when a real Jenny will turn up on the Internet with her white board.

An executive assistant quits her job using a dry erase board, digital photos and a wicked sense of irony and humor. In doing so, she calls out her boss for lots of bad behavior – including wasting most of his work week playing FarmVille.

Details are sketchy so far, but given that the story of Jenny the HPOA appeared this morning on TechCrunch, it’s only a matter of time before we know all about Jenny, her former boss Spenser and the name of the brokerage firm where Spenser works.

Reputational danger, Will Robinson! Danger!

Elsewhere on this blog, my colleague Carreen Winters has catalogued a variety of situations that can trigger the need for a company’s crisis response. Now she can add “angry executive assistant armed with a whiteboard” to the list.

The New York Times reported today that APCO, a well-respected PR firm, advised HP’s board to get ahead of potential leaks associated with the investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by then-CEO Hurd.

The board took the advice, disclosing the unsupported allegations. Hurd resigned later that week – not due to the sexual allegations, but because he admitted to falsifying travel expense reports.

But I digress. Let’s look at APCO’s role here. APCO seemed to follow the crisis playbook – be proactive, be open and provide full disclosure. So far, so good. But if they made a mistake – and you could make a strong argument that they didn’t – perhaps it was to counsel their client to move quickly without all the facts in hand.

Now APCO’s reputation is getting bruised by a variety of media outlets, including the Times, which concluded its story today by reporting that APCO “does not have a particularly strong reputation for crisis management or technology expertise” despite advising corporate icons such as Microsoft, Intel and yes, HP, on such matters.

Ouch!

That happened this morning when I was scanning various accounts of Amazon’s acquisition of Woot! and came across this video press release from Woot.com announcing the sale.

So what’s this have to do with reputation? Nearly everything, IMHO. Woot! built a massive following of consumers who are loyal to the brand. They love its simplicity and its attitude. They identify with that reputation. Imagine the erosion of brand loyalty had Woot chosen to make the announcement in mainstream corporate fashion.

Instead, the video, combined with the “internal memo” from CEO Matt Rutledge, signals it will be reputational business-as-usual at Woot, regardless of who’s signing the paychecks.